Duke Basketball Recruiting Roundup: July 23 Edition

The Duke basketball coaches are busy this week in Las Vegas with USA Basketball responsibilities and some recruiting opportunities at various events.

Coach K’s attention is primarily focused on getting the National Team ready for the Summer Olympics in Rio in a few weeks, but Duke’s assistant coaches will still be on-hand to watch many of the program’s top recruiting targets.

Here are the biggest headlines from the past week related to the players on Duke’s recruiting radar.

It’s been a whirlwind past couple months for Gary Trent Jr., a 5-star shooting guard the Blue Devils are targeting in the class of 2017. Trent was a key piece in helping USA Basketball win gold at the FIBA U17 World Championships in Spain and was one of the best players in this summer’s Nike EYBL. He’s decided to play his senior season of high school basketball at Findlay Prep in Nevada in hopes of helping him develop as a player and face tougher competition on a regular basis. Check out Trent’s full blog post on USA Today High School Sports.

Class of 2017 5-star power forward Wendell Carter Jr. trimmed his list of potential schools to eight with a tweet on Monday. Duke is considered to be the heavy favorite for the 6’10”, 250-pounder from Atlanta, but he’s also still considering North Carolina, Georgia Tech, Arizona, Kentucky, Harvard, Georgia, and California. Carter and Gary Trent Jr. have talked on multiple occasions about wanting to play together in college.

5-star shooting guard Romeo Langford is one of the most dynamic scorers in the class of 2018, and he showed why on Friday night with a 40-point performance at the Adidas Summer Championships in Las Vegas. The Blue Devils have already extended a scholarship offer to Langford, a 6’5” guard from New Albany, IN.

Kevin Knox was another 5-star player in the 2017 class who narrowed down his list of potential schools this week, announcing his 10 finalists with a tweet last weekend. Duke is still in the running for Knox, and Kentucky, Miami, North Carolina, and Florida State are also regarded as strong contenders. The Seminoles are hoping Knox will follow in the footsteps of his parents, who both played at Florida State. Knox is 6’8”, 195 pounds, and is No. 2 small forward and No. 6 overall player in the 247Sports Composite.

—

Thanks for checking out this week’s recruiting roundup. Keep up with more Duke related news by following us on Twitter at @DukeReport.